Friendship Regatta 2025: Kavala - Tassos - Chalkidiki

A year after my first Friendship Regatta ⛵, I was back in the north Aegean sea 🌊, back among crews from Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Greece 🇬🇷, Romania 🇷🇴, Serbia 🇷🇸 and beyond. But 2025 was a different regatta for me, and not only because of the wind.

A few weeks before the start, I injured my shoulder in a fall from my motorcycle. Trimming the mainsail, my usual job on board, was out of the question. So instead of staying home, I moved to the bow. This post is about seeing the regatta from the very front of the boat.

👥 The crew

Same boat as last year, with Dimitris Sofitsis as skipper again, and a partly new crew of seven: some familiar faces from last year's boat, others I had raced with at other regattas.

A new line-up, but not a crew of strangers. Having sailed with most of them before, here or elsewhere, we skipped much of the getting-to-know-each-other stage: we already knew who calls the tack, who stays calm in a crowded start, and who makes the coffee. The new faces fitted in quickly, and that mix of familiar and new is very much what the Friendship Regatta is about.

Our boat was again the Comet 41S, 41ft, Hakuna Matata (GRE-1243), racing in Division 1. With two fewer hands than in 2024, every crew member had more to do, which made my move to the bow even more important.

🔄 From mainsail to bow

On the mainsail you sit in the middle of everything: you feel every gust through the sheet and you talk constantly with the helm. On the bow you are on your own at the front, calling distances at the start, setting and dropping the headsails, and watching for wind on the water before anyone else sees it.

With one good arm, I had to rethink every move:

• Let the legs do the work. Bracing, kneeling and using body weight instead of pulling with the shoulder.
• Clear communication. Calls to the cockpit had to be early and simple, so nobody waited on me.
• Knowing my limits. The crew covered the heavy lifting I couldn't do, and I made up for it with eyes and timing.

It was humbling, and it taught me more about the boat than another year in my comfortable spot would have.

🧭 The route

The 2025 edition ran from 30 June to 4 July, organised by NOThAK and NOA, with 18 boats and 7 scored races over four racing days, moving the fleet from Kavala to Skala Kallirachis on Thassos and on to Stavros in Halkidiki.

On each day with two races, both started together, so they were scored at two different finishes of the same course.

🌊 The challenges

• Racing injured. Every manoeuvre on the bow is physical. Doing it with a sore shoulder meant planning each move and trusting the crew.
• The wind. After the wild meltemi days of 2024, this year was much kinder: stable conditions most of the week, broken only by the occasional wind drop. Those lulls were where races were won and lost. From the bow, my job was to spot the next puff on the water and call it back before the boat stalled.
• Working the front. My main jobs were the spinnaker pole, hoisting and dropping the jib, and handling the lines through every gybe. It is constant ropework in a small space with the deck moving under you, and each manoeuvre has to be ready before the cockpit calls it. Doing it with one good shoulder meant clean, deliberate moves and no wasted effort.

Our result: 4th overall out of 18 boats, with race finishes of 3, 2, 6, 4, 4, 3 and 4.

📷 The view from the bow

This year there is no cinematic film of the whole event. With my hands busy on the bow and a sore shoulder to protect, I couldn't be the one behind the camera. What I have instead are raw, first-person clips from the bow: the spray coming over the deck, the headsail filling, the fleet around us and the coast ahead.

They are not polished, but they are honest. They show the regatta exactly as I saw it.

🏝️ Off the boat

The friendship part of the regatta got a serious test this year: we celebrated Misho's birthday ashore 🎂🥂. It was a proper crew party, the kind that only happens when a boat full of sailors finally has a reason and a free evening.

The next day, the crew paid the price. A solid hangover, a bright Greek sun and a boat that still needed sailing 🤕. Nobody was at their sharpest, the coffee ran out fast, and every call from the bow felt a little louder than usual. Still, nobody regretted a thing. Happy birthday, Misho! 🎉

🎬 Watch the clips

The view from the bow, raw and first-person, is in the video: Friendship Regatta 2025 on YouTube.

The Friendship Regatta once again lived up to its name. An injury changed my place on the boat, but not the reason I come back: the people, the sea and the fleet travelling the coast together.

See you on the start line next summer. Fair winds! ⛵

Race results: FRIENDSHIP REGATTA 2025